


Loss of a Father

by Spazzy_Nerd



Category: Original Work
Genre: Angst, Gen, Loss, Mentions of Death, Mentions of Rape
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-24
Updated: 2020-03-24
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:20:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23293906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spazzy_Nerd/pseuds/Spazzy_Nerd
Summary: Zane Jelm is trying to cope with the loss of his father, and is struggling to.
Kudos: 2





	Loss of a Father

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a while since I've written anything, so I apologize if this isn't that good. I tried, I really did. Zane, Echo and Cirvion are all characters from a world I'm creating called Pagama, they are from the book I'm working on known as Code Dev. Thank you for your time and please enjoy.

A door creaked open as a young blonde man stepped into a room empty of any living person.

“Father-” The man began before freezing up. He stared at the bed for a moment or two. There was no one in the bed, mind you, but he stared anyways. Some tears welled in his eyes as he stood there.

“Zane!” Shouted a voice. “Are you coming?”

“I’ll be right there, Echo!” Zane shouted as he tore his gaze from the bed. He let out a soft sigh and rubbed his eyes. “We miss you, father.” With that, he left the room, wondering down the darkened hallway to the kitchen.

In the kitchen stood a rusted bot, he was much shorter than Zane was.

“Zane!” The bot shouted, throwing his arms around him.

“Good morning, Echo.” Zane rubbed his eye, trying to keep from tearing up. He remembered when his father first made Echo. He remembered why he made Echo.

\---

“Father.” The door creaked as Zane pushed open the door. “You are late for- What are you doing?”

“I was making you a brother.” Smiled the older man. “Not to mention, I wanted to see if I could make an AI without using magic. It would seem I can… but the metal I needed was all rusted by the time it got here.”

“Dr. Jelm-” Zane opened his mouth.

“Zane, you needn’t talk like that. I’m your father, you can just call me dad. Or Cirvion. I would prefer you call me dad though.” Sighed Dr. Jelm.

“My apologies, father.” Zane looked away.

“It’s alright, Zane, calm down. Would you like to meet your little brother?”

“Yes.”

Dr. Jelm carefully stepped to the side to reveal the small AI, he was covered in rust.

“You’re related biologically.” Smiled Dr. Jem. “I’m very proud of him. Echo, meet Zane. He’s your older brother.”

Echo took a step forward, stumbling a little bit.

“That’s it, Echo, you’re doing great.” Dr. Jem smiled and chuckled.

Zane’s eyes went wide as Echo stumbled forward and hugged him.

“Hello, big brother.” Echo smiled up at him.

“Hello, little brother.” Zane smiled warmly.

“I expect you to watch over each other once I’m gone, Zane, Echo.” Dr. Jelm smiled warmly.

“We will, father, we will.” Zane nodded his head.

\---

“Zane? Are you okay?” Echo was standing right in front of him now. Zane yelped and jumped backwards.

“Y-Yes, yes… I’m fine.” Zane rubbed the tears from his eyes and sighed.

“Are you sure?” Echo’s brows knit together.

“Positive.” Zane pet Echo’s head. “Now let’s make breakfast, shall we?”

“Yay!” Echo cheered.

Despite his happy demeanor, Zane knew Echo was taking the news of their father’s death just as hard. Sure, it wasn’t completely unexpected. Dr. Jelm was an older man, who ended up getting deathly ill, dying was to be expected. Much to his dismay, despite his years of medical training, Zane had not been able to save his father. It haunted him, day and night.

Zane sighed as they went to work, making breakfast for the family. Most of the family was rather quiet and estrange, especially now that their father was dead. The only person who seemed not to care was Ophim, but the rest of the family gave the woman a pass. Zane, on the other hand, did not. That was mainly due to his trauma that _she_ caused. He didn’t hate the woman. No, he didn’t have it in him to hate anyone. Besides maybe his sister Jenna, who tried to murder him and kill his friends. He was scared of Ophim, scared of what she might do. He was scared she might hurt his family; she had already convinced his younger brother that the child she was carrying was his after all.

Zane knew though, he knew. She was lying. No one else knew, he didn’t talk about the assault with anyone. Ophim was carrying his child, and according to Pagamin rules, you had to be married to keep your child. Why Ophim insisted on keeping it was beyond him, but she had convinced Echo and the rest of the family that the child was Echo’s. To Zane’s constant displeasure, Ophim was now wed to Echo and lived with them. He lived in terror of how she could ruin his family, so he stayed silent. Too afraid to say anything, too afraid to do anything, because all he had was his family and friends.

“Zane, you’re zoning out again.” Ophim spoke up. “You should really sleep more.”

Zane tensed, he looked down to realize, he was sitting at the table. What happened? Did Echo sit him down?

“I know dad’s death is probably getting to you.” Ophim got up, her swollen stomach making it a little more difficult. “But you should really pay more attention, you almost started a fire in the kitchen.” 

“M-My apologies.” Zane looked away.

“It’s alright, Zane, just calm down.” She walked over to him slowly, placing both hands to his shoulders.

Zane tensed and got up. “I-I have work to do!” He ran, his brother cried his name as he left the house. He couldn’t handle this, not now.

He ran, he ran as far as his legs would take him. He made sure to go through the less popular pathways to avoid any of the fighting. He covered his face.

“Father, why did you have to leave?” Zane choked. He lowered his hands after a few seconds passed to look at his surroundings. He ended up in a field of flowers, but he knew better. This was no ordinary field. It was a graveyard; the flowers had simply been planted above the rotting bodies.

Zane stumbled forward as he headed, almost mechanically, to his father’s newly dug grave. He sat himself down besides it in the grass.

“Father, why did you have to leave us?” He looked to the grave stone. “I… I realize everyone dies but… why did you have to leave _now_ of all times? When we need you most…? When _I_ need you most…”? Some tears welled in his eyes. “Why did you have to leave?!” His tears over flowed.

“You promised me that you’d never leave me!” Zane choked out. “You promised… when I was first turned on, that you’d never leave me… Never leave me alone… And now, here I am… all alone.”

“Father, I don’t want to be alone!” Zane cried out. He gripped his kimono within his hands so hard his hands were white. “Please, father, let this be a bad dream!”

“Zane?” A voice called. “Echo said you ran off.” A young man entered the clearing, another blonde.

“Hello, Zenth… I apologize… I-I….” Zane stuttered, covering his face.

“Relax, Zane, you don’t need to tell me… you probably miss dad a lot, huh?” Zenth walked over and sat down beside Zane.

“Of course, I do, we all do.” Zane looked away.

“Yeah, but this is hitting you the hardest, little brother.” Zenth reached out a hand and patted Zane’s head. “You were always really close to dad, joined at his hip. He was so proud of you when you were made.”

“I remember.” Zane nodded his head. “I remember everything…” He released his white kimono and covered his face once more.

“Come on, don’t do that.” Zenth grabbed his hands and lowered them. “You shouldn’t be ashamed for crying… unless that’s a comfort thing.” He released Zane’s hands. “Sorry.”

“I-It’s fine.” Zane looked away. “I… I miss dad.”

“I know.” Zenth opened up his arms for Zane.

Zane wrapped his arms around his brother.

“We all miss dad…” Zenth sighed, “Some of us more than others. I know it hurts, Zane, but please be strong. You can get through this. Dad wouldn’t want you to be miserable. He loved you.”

“I-I know but… It’s so hard…” Zane looked up at Zenth.

“I know it is…” Zenth rubbed his back. “It’s okay, it’ll all be okay. You’ve still got Echo, and me, and all our other siblings. I know it’s scary, but you can get through this.”

Zane sniffled as he broke the embrace and pulled out his handkerchief. Once he had dried his face, he sighed.

“Now come on, breakfast is getting cold.” Zenth chuckled and stood up.

“I… will join you in a minute.” Zane nodded.

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

“Alright.” With that, Zenth turned and walked away.

“Thank you… for making me.” Zane hugged the gravestone. “Thank you for making Echo.” He sniffled as he released the grave stone and stood up. “Goodbye, father.”

The end.


End file.
